We’re all on a journey – some harder than others
Sep 19, 2017, 10:05 AM | Updated: Oct 1, 2024, 10:41 am
I leave for work at the same time every morning – at 3:40 a.m. The consistency of my schedule lends itself to another odd consistency; I drive by the same man at about the same place in the road every morning.
Being the naturally curious person I am with an affinity for what’s been described as interrogation-style question-and-answer getting-to-know-you sessions, I want to know why our paths cross as they do.
Is he walking to work? Is he walking home from a bar? Is he homeless? Where does he work? Who is he? How old is he? How far does he walk? Does he have comfortable shoes? What does his voice sound like?
Yes, I want to know all of that – and more.
What stops me from parking my car to pepper him with questions is that voice in the back of my head (or, once when I shared this story on Seattle’s Morning News, a text from my mother warning me to not pick up strangers) that tells me stopping on the side of the road in the dark to talk to a person I do not know is risky, at best.
Also, don’t you think that would freak him out? The only other car on the road – albeit a familiar one as I’ve seen him look up at me – stopping suddenly and waiting for him to approach?
I’ll probably never know his story, but I do wish him the best. I like to imagine that he is a father of three walking miles to work to provide for his family. Because people like that do exist.
Take, for instance, Shantelle Priester of Jamesville, New York. She’s 5-months pregnant and takes two buses before walking four miles to get to her job at the penitentiary. She’s tried to get the bus system to run a route to the penitentiary, but they’ve declined. A job is a job and Shantelle had no other choice but to keep trudging on. That was until she caught the attention of a news crew.
You can hear Colleen O’Brien’s “Daily Dose of Kindness” segment every morning at 7:30 a.m. on KIRO Radio 97.3 FM
